The History of Rock n Roll - Katherine Lung
This era's pop culture influences is pivotal because it brought changes and pushed and challenged American way of living and social boundaries with the influences of black music, and European ideas. Elvis's controversial movement broadcasted on television brought sexuality in the open, which was taboo to discuss before, The Beatles and their ideal boy-ish charm that all parents approve of made it acceptable for everyone to like them and their music which eventually with John Lennon's active role in social changes taught Americas to question and challenge authority, and Bob Dylan's music that wholly reflected the emotional state of America which is natural considering Bob Dylan grew up in it himself.
Elvis' popularity is largely due to the large following for "race music", such as R&B and Gospel. However in the still heavily segregated American society, it wasn't acceptable to listen to Black influenced music, but with the emergence of Elvis, a White male, it allowed a large scope of audience to enjoy this genre of music openly. Thus came the era of Rock n Roll. The Beatles and brought in European views that challenged the Christian and conservative America, not consciously (ie the Beatles are better than Jesus comment) but probably brought on from cultural differences. Bob Dylan would come in a different category than The Beatles and Elvis, since he wasn't geared toward popularity in such ways as Elvis and Beatles was, but simply channeled his state of feelings he experienced in a age where there was turmoil everywhere politically and socially, reflected and synchronized with the feeling of the rest of American youth.